Henderson Alvarez wins his first major league win as the Jays bats schooled Jo Jo

Henderson Alvarez picked up his first major league win as he pitched 8 innings and retired 7 Orioles to start the game and when he did give up a hit or a walk they were usually erased by a double play ball as he retired 19 of 21 Orioles throw seven innings and the only hit by Ryan Adams in the third and Matt Angle reached on Yunel Escobar throwing error in the seventh were both erased by a double play. He ended with a three hit shutout over eight innings with no walks and 5Ks as he only faced 26 batters and the Jays had sent 25 batters through 4 innings.

So the Jays ended up with 13 runs on 20 hits and Jo Jo Reyes said he had a chip on his shoulder and by the time he left after 2.2 innings pitched it was more like a mountain and the Jays took aim at it time after time and even Kelly Johnson said I remember U from the time we spent together in Atlanta and hammered his first homer as a Blue Jay which was a three run homer and Jose Molina launched Jo Jo's final pitch of the night into the seats. Jo Jo left the game given up 8 runs on 7 hits with 2 walks along with 2Ks and it did not end there as by the end of the fourth inning Edwin Encarnacion was 3 for 3 with 2 RBIs and for the next five innings he would be looking for a triple for the cycle but instead he went 4 for 5 and tied his career high in doubles (33) as he had two doubles in the game. Eric Thames had 4 hits including two more doubles to give him 20 on the season to give him 6 hits and four doubles in the first two games of the series while Jo Jo former Braves teammate Yanul Escobar also had four hits as well in the game. Jose Bautista was like the only batter other than Mike McCoy who had problems with Jo Jo but when Troy Patton came into the game Bautista was licking his chops as he was 2 for 4 against him with 2 homers so what does Bautista do he hits a two run homer to give him 39 on the season and including a RBI ground out he ended up with 3 RBIs in the game.

Then there was Adam Lind who was 2 for 4 with a double and two RBIs in the game but it was what happened when he finished with the ball late in the game when it basically filler time and he brought the ball back to the dugout and just tosses the ball into the crowd and just pays no attention to where it lands and goes down the dugout steps and the ball does not make it to the crowd and it comes down hitting the cameraman beside the Jays dugout in the noise. So the Jays trainer comes over and cleans him up and he ends up wearing one of the catchers mask for show before he gave it up but all in all it was a fun game.

So now the Jays hand the ball to Luis Perez for the rubber match of the series before heading to the big apple

Tom Mehegan

Carlos Villanueva replaces Brain Tallet on the roaster as there are a few September call ups

Brain Tallet was designated for assignment after last night when he made his return to the Blue Jays and was put into a no win situation as he was asked to close down the game and he had five save opportunity and blow each one and he did again last night.

He had 25 starts in 2009 and was 7 and 8 and had 15 starts of at least 6 inning and then saw shot down for a dead arm for 16 days in the middle of July and now he is being sent out and will be replaced by Carlos Villanueva who has done the same thing this season that Tallet did in 2009 by starting 13 games and had 7 straight starts of at least 6 innings and had a 5-3 record as a starter along with starting with a 3 and 0 record as a starter and then missed four weeks because of a dead arm. He will go back to the bullpen for the reminder of the season.

It is weird that they did not wait like 12 hours to bring Carlos back up from Triple A were he was warming up his arm again and tomorrow the Jays will take Jon Rauch off the 15 day DL while there will also be a Dustin McGowan sighting to see if he has the chance to get anywhere near the starting rotation next season or if next seasons he will be in the Jays bullpen as he has a 1.90 ERA in 23.2 inning with a 24/10 ration of Ks to balls. Also David Cooper will have a return engagement this season as he tearing up Las Vegas hitting .375 (which is way better than when he first came up), 9 homers with 95 RBIs to go with 49 doubles and 60 walks to 40Ks so he may get playing time at first and Lind may get time to focus on hammering the ball as DH.

Finally Adam Loewen should be given a chance to get up to the big league as the Canadian from Vancouver, BC and was a fourth overall draft pick by the Orioles in the 2002 entree draft and has turned from being a pitcher when he made his Major League Debut on May 23, 2006 with the Orioles to now being an outfielder. He hit .305 (152 for 499) with 16 homers and 81 RBIs while have 44 doubles along with 3 triples to go with 57 walks compared 128 in 128 games.

Lets see if the Jays can have a better September than August

Tom Mehegan

Eric Thames muscled the ball around Camden Yards but Jays still lose in extras

Eric Thames had a night to remember as he was tattooing the baseball all over Camden yards as went 2 for 5 with two doubles and if he had hit the ball a little higher in the first he would of had his 10th homer of the season but instead Nolan Reimold reaches above his head with his glove and if he missed it was gone as the fence at Camden Yards is 6 feet tall. Brett Lawrie in the second is a couple of walks on hit it a little bit higher for a three run homer to give the Jays a 3-0 lead and it was one of the two hits with runners in scoring position as they went 2 for 14 in the game. In the second for the Orioles Matt Wieters hit a two run shot that just cleared the wall and it was noticeable that Jays center fielder Mike McCoy was way shorter than 6 feet as he was not even close to as tall as the wall and it was 3-2 Jays and it was the seventh straight game that Brett Cecil gave up a homer and he was struggling to get the ball down for most of the game. In the fourth inning Nolan Reimold hits it softly to Brett Cecil and he should of eaten the ball as Reimond was safe at first but instead he throws the ball away and Robert Andino scored as he ws on second when the ball was hit to tie the game at 3. Then in the top of the fifth inning the Jays had bases loaded with no outs and Edwin Encarnacion hit the ball right back to the pitcher Jeremy Guthrie who throws home and Wiethers throw to first to complete a double play and Kelly Johnson flied out to end the inning and the Jays got no runs in the inning but then in the bottom of the inning Valdi got a RBI double to score a Adam Jones walk so that the Orioles a 4-3 lead. It stayed that way till the ninth when Kevin Gregg came in and did not have it as J.P. singled and was replaced Dwayne Wise as a runner and Mike McCoy walked and with Yunel squaring to bunt nobody was covering second or third so the Jays had two runners in scoring position and Yunel had a sac fly that would of almost a two run double but McCoy at third with one out he was unable to driven in because Eric Thames hit the softest ball he hit all game to shallow left field and McCoy was not able to score and the Orioles walked both Bautista and Lind to get to Encarnacion who grounded out to end the inning. Then in the tenth Kelly Johnson tripled and scored on a wild pitch ball four to Jose Molina to give the Jays the lead 5-4 and in the bottom of the inning saw the return of Brain Tallet who in 5 save opportunities had not picked up a save and just did not have it as he walked Matt Wieters and Mark Reynolds to open the inning and with one out Jake Fox singled to tie the game and then Ryan Adams a game winning ground rule double so that Tallet faced 5 Orioles and 4 of them reached base. Brett Cecil gave up 4 runs on 8 hits with 2 walks along with 4Ks in 6 innings and in the same 6 innings Jeremy Guthrie gave up 3 runs on 6 hits and walked 2 along with 5 Ks as the Jays had 9 hits and 6 walks tonight and left 10 runners on base while the Orioles were even worse leaving a 11 on base in the game.

Henderson Alvarez who is getting better every start goes up against the Guy he replaced in the rotation Jo Jo Reyes who is now 2 and 2 with the Orioles in a must win middle game for the Jays

Tom Mehegan

Dwayne Murphy tells his hitters to stop whining and they got the message as hammered 14 hits

Dwayne Murphy did an interview for the Blue Jays radio network he said now I am going back to the club house and have a talk with the hitters and ask them to stop whining to the umpire and his point got across as the Jays ended up with 14 hits in the game. In the game the Jays had two two homers which were Adam Lind's 23Rd homer a two-run shot to take the lead for good as the Jays lead 3-2 and after awkward beginning of the night for Jose Bautista who watched a 2 and 0 pitch that he would of turned on earlier this season just go by without a swing and then had a phantom hit by pitch just like Casey Kotchman yesterday but then had a solo shot in the sixth to tie Curtis Granderson with 38 homers.

In the 14 hits J.P. got awake up call from the message as he went 3 for 4 with 2 RBIs and fell a homer short of the cycle and was on deck when Brett Lawrie flying out to end the eighth and then there was Kelly Johnson who had 3 hits in the game and had come into the game with the Jays 2 for 13. While Yunel Escobar (including a RBI) and Eric Thames had two hits each as Dwayne Wise was the only Jay to not get a hit and when he had a chance to relive his moment in the sun as he ran back to the wall on a ball hit by B.J. Upton and jumped and he barely missed it and Upton ended up with a triple. the Jays ended up starting slowly again as with 2 walks on Adam Lind hit into an inning ending double play but then they put up 3 in the third, 2 runs in the fourth, and finally put up single runs in the fifth and sixth on their way to a 7-3 victory.

Ricky Romero kept the Jays in the game as he pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks along with 2Ks but he also used his glove as an extra infielder as he was able to knock the ball down and catch Upton after his triple as a dead duck and got him out. He was working from the stretch all game long as he was unable to have a 1-2-3 inning tonight but the only to hurt him in the game was Johnny Damon who hit a two-run homer with a Desmond Jennings walk on in the first and then had a solo shot to lead off the fifth inning and now Ricky Romero is 13 and 9 this season.

In other news John Farrell will not be going to Baltimore for the three game series against the Orioles as he is still recovering from pneumonia and will hopefully rejoin the team in the big apple this weekend but until then Don Wakamatsu will continue being the Jays manager. Also Brain Tallet has finally returned to the Jays as he has come off the 15 day DL after injuring himself after a hard sneeze and will be taken Wil Ledezma spot in the bullpen after Ledezma was designated for assignment.

Jays need to keep this hitting outburst going into Baltimore

Tom Mehegan

The Jays need a hitting coach instead of a home run coach

Dwayne Murphy has been the hitting coach since the past two seasons where last season the Jays hit 257 homers and the Jays had the third worst American League batting average with a .247 batting average and then so far this season in 133 games the Jays has hit 152 homers and is batting .252 which is in the middle of American League in batting.

It is nice to see home runs and keep the fans are excited about 409 homers in 295 games but if the Jays do not hit better they will not be able to get more runs and win more games and get into the playoff race with maybe another playoff spot in the works for next season. The thing about the Blue Jays is that almost all the Jays are sluggers but if they do not hit it and out then they are not getting on base as there are only two players and maybe three who can get on base. The two players are Jose Bautista is hitting .312 and when he does not hit he still gets on base as has 106 walks along with Brett Lawrie even though it is a small sample size he is still 26 for 77 with four doubles and four triples to go with his five homers and he has a very good eye even if he has only walked 5 times. The third player is lead off hitter Yunel Escobar who is hitting .282 (134 for 475) and with his 54 walks helps his on base percentage of .359 and if Eric Thames still has more patience he will get better than his 15 walks and his 266 batting average and on base percentage 310. Adam Lind has 20% of hits being homers so that if he does not get a homer then he hits into an out as he has a batting average 257 and with his 26 walks in 105 games and then they have hot and cold DH in Edwin Encaracion as he is hitting 316 (49 for 155) and 12 doubles and his 8 homers is 17% of his hits since the all-star break but before that he hit 239 (59 for 247) so U really do not know what kind of hitter U will get and that is his major league history. Kelly Johnson and Colby Rasmus still has not hit their stride as Rasmus is hitting 218 with more strike outs (22) to hits (19) in 23 games and then there is J.P. who is about to break the record for homers as a catcher and a couple off the all time rookie record for homers but he is hitting 212 (76 for 359) and his 20 homers is 26% of his hits.

So the thing is that the Jays need to find themselves a hitting coach and not just a homer coach and that means that Dwayne Murphy needs to go and someone else who can work with the younger hitters to make them better and if the Jays homers go down to like 125-30 homers a season while the batting average jumps up to 265-270 team batting average. This would get more runners on base and with combined hits it would help the Jays score more runs which would hopefully lead to more wins especially at home because winning 50 - 60 games at home like the Brewers will do this season instead of being around 500 at home like the Jays which look like they are going to do this season.

Jays are awesome but need more runners on base

Tom Mehegan

Brandon Morrow is horrible at the Rogers Centre

At the Rogers Centre Brandon Morrow in 14 starts this season is 4 and 8 with an inflated ERA of 6.38 which is outrageous up against his 5 and 1 record with a 2.83 ERA on the road which is a full 3.45 higher and has given up 11 of his 15 homers at the Rogers Centre and has given up more than twice the amounts of hits as on the road 89 compared to 43 in his 10 road starts this season. While also walks more batters at home than on the road as he has walked 2.4 batters per start at to 2 per start on the road and he strikes out more batters on the road (7.2 per start) compared to at home (6.5 per start). He lasts longer in games on the road 6.1 compared to at home 5.2 and the opponents batting average at home 277 compared to on the road 189.

So this the direct opposite to last season where his ERA on the road was almost 4 runs worst than his home ERA was (6.72 compared to 2.74) in 13 games both on the road and @ home and had a record of 2 and 6 on the road while having a 8 and 1 record at home while pitching 6.1 inning a start @ home to 5 innings a start on the road. With basically the same amounts of hits with 70 on the road and 66 at home but almost twice as as many runs scored 50 on the road to 26 @ home and the walks went from 24 @ home to 42 on the road with strike outs 97 @ home and then dropping to 81 on the road which is more than a strike out a game. While the opposites batting average @ home was 221 and than jumped 60 points to 281 on the road so where he felt comfortable last season he now does not and where he did not feel comfort last season he now loves it.

So he either needs to figure out what worked for him last season and do that same exact thing or he needs to live in a hotel the next before a game and get away from the distractions @ home and just focus about the game like he most do on the road this season. Also needs to stop doing whatever he does on the weekend because his weekend numbers are worse than his home numbers as he is 2 and 3 with an ERA of 6.55 and lasts 5.1 innings in his 8 days games this season with an opposites batting average of 284.

Morrow is still young and it is his second full season as a starter and when he can mix and match his pitches better he will become a better all around pitcher

Tom Mehegan

Price too high for the Jays liking as he sets a Rays record for Ks in a game

So David Price came into the Roger Centre and believed he owned it and for the day he did after walking the first batter he faced Mike McCoy he then proceeded to strike out the next 5 straight batters and he struck out 9 of the first 11 Blue Jays he faced in the game as he went 7 innings and had a 3 hit shutout. He also set a new strike outs for a game record with 14Ks and the Jays basically watched his fast ball and it was almost an automatic strike as he throw 75 s compared to 36 b and the Jays were looking at a lot of 0 and 2 counts and the Rays need was for Brandon Morrow to throw his first pitch on the game a fastball to Desmond Jennings who really likes Jays pitching as he hit his 7 homer of the season to give the Rays the lead and all the runs they would need as they went ahead 1-0.

Brandon Morrow did not have his crisp stuff today as he was leaving his pitches up and when the Rays got a hold of one it went yard and the second inning was a disaster for him as with one out he walked B.J. Upton and he wild pitched him to second and then had Upton steal third of him give J.P. no chance to get him and with two out the pitch of the game happened as Morrow missed placed a slider to catcher John Jaso who singled through the infield on a 1 and 2 pitch to score Upton and make it 2-0 Rays. Then Sean Rodriguez stepped to the plate and on a 1 and 1 pitch he smacked a two-run homer and that was followed immediately by Desmond Jennings stepped to the plate and smacking his third homer of the series and 8th on the season and it was 5-0 Jays. Brandon Morrow settled down and went another 3.1 innings pitched and gave up 2 hits and 2 walks along with a Phantom hit by a pitch to Casey Kotchman as the only thing it hit was the nob of the bat and he was awarded first base and later in the game with Rommie Lewis now pitching for the Jays Kotchman may of been hit on a button on his uniform if that for another easy walk to first. The Rays with the game already decided 6-0 in the top of the ninth put up a six spot on Wil Ledezma who throw 45 pitches and 24 balls and 21 strikes in his inning of work and he gave up 6 runs on 5 hits with three walks and the Rays before coming to the friendly confines of the Rogers Centre were down the road in the less friendly confines of Detroit as in a three game series they got a total of five runs against the AL Central leading Tigers.

Desmond Jennings had 4 hits in the game and his 5 of his 8 homers against Blue Jays pitching while Matt Joyce is back to swinging a hot bat again and as he was up there with Jose Bautista in league leaders in batting batting average and had follow completely off the map for a good chunk of time.

Brett Lawrie is still swinging a hot bat as he had two hits as he visited with Team Canada from the little league world series from his home town of Langley, BC while Jose Bautista still is not getting a great view of the ball as he is still watching strike three's and is still extremely frustrated with his own performance and even charged a ball today and over ran the ball something he never does.

Tomorrow the ACE of the Jays pitching staff Ricky Romero has to put his last outing behind him and get the Jays back on track by winning the finale of the series before meeting more AL East opponents

Tom Mehegan

Jays almost turn a triple play but still lost the game

When Kelly Shoppach bunted to Shawn Camp in a 2-2 game and he throw to Brett Lawrie stepped on third and throw to Kelly Johnson at first to get Shoppach and then Kelly Johnson throw back to third but Brett Lawrie caught to far away from the base and had to dive for Sean Rodriguez and he was safe by a second (then scored on a Elliot Johnson RBI single to break the tie) the Jays were that close to getting a triple play. There was a lot of talk between Brett Lawrie and Adam Lind after the play because it was that close and if Brett Lawrie had been more aware at third for the return throw and was closer to the bag they could of had a triple play or kept Rodriduez at second.

B.J. had a monster shot in the sixth inning and it was reviewed by the umpires and it ruled foul and it was a monster shot because it was higher than the foul pole and then on the next pitch he was hit by a pitch by Shawn Camp. So then Upton came back up again in the seventh and this time he faced Jesse Litch and for the first time out of the bullpen Litsch was wild as he walked two straight batters with a K on either side of them and then Upton took him deep on his pitch of the game for a three run shot to give the Rays a 6-2 lead.

The Jays made a come back as Brett Lawrie lead off with a triple and J.P. drove him in with a ground out and then in the eighth inning Eric Thames lead off the inning with a nine pitch at bat against Jake McGee and took him deep for his 9th homer and then with two out Juan Cruz came into the game against Edwin Encarnacion and he took him deep for a solo shot and his 14th homer to make it 6-5. Then Joel Peralta came in and J. P., Dwayne Wise, and Yanul Escobar hit him hard but right to Rays outfielders and the Rays won 6-5.

Luis Perez pitch well enough to keep the Jays in the game as he left with a 2-2 tie after five with Sean Rodriduez hit a two-run ground rule double in the fourth to take the lead 2-1 as Jose Bautista had a RBI double to open the scoring in the first but that was it for the Jays in the first even though there were only one out but after Lind put runners on the corners Encarnacion pop out and Kelly Johnson grounded out to Rays pitcher Jeff Niemann. Perez got out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth as he struck out Ben Zobrist on his 90th and last pitch he throw for his fourth strike out of the game and he end up given up 2 runs on 5 hits with 4 walks including an intentionally walk to Evan Longoria to load the bases in the fifth while Jeff Niemann pitched 6.1 innings and gave up 3 on 5 hits with 2 walks and 6Ks.

Eric Thames had 2 hits in the game while J.P. had two RBIs included and RBI ground rule double and now the Jays need to have Brandon Morrow help to get back on the right track again and the bats need to come alive

Tom Mehegan

Jose Bautista ejected from the game but it does not inspire the rest of the team

In the sixth inning Jose Bautista after striking out swing for his third strike out of the game went back to the dugout and took his bat and pound the living delights out of a cardboard sign and the home plate umpire Bill Welke said I have had enough of this (as he decided to listen to Bautista in the first when Bautista felt the pitch he called out on was off the plate) and tossed him from the game. That's not all as Jays fans witnessed something they had not seen out of the model citizen Jose Bautista disgraced himself by throwing anything he could onto the field and sadly it did not inspire the rest of the team as the Jays were down 4-1 going into the last third of the game and did not put up any more runs.

Rays starter Jake Shields gave up a solo homer to Brett Lawrie with one out in the second inning and the Jays took a 1-0 lead and then Jake Shields gave up 5 hits and a walk the rest of the game in which he completed his tenth complete game of the season which leads the majors as Roy Halladay has 7 to lead the NL and a group in the AL has 4 to be second to Shields. Jake Shields gave up his 22Nd homer on the season to go with 7 hits along with a walk to go with 12K in the game and he throw 125 pitches (83 s - 42 b).

Jays starter Henderson Alvarez started well and retired the first 7 batters he faced and got a head of 14 of the 25 batters he faced as he fell behind 7 batters and 4 batters put the ball into play on the first pitch which all put together he got ahead of more batters than in any other game. Henderson hit the eighth batter he faced John Jaso got hit by a pitch and then a few minutes of complaining by Joe Madden as Bill Welke did not think he was hit and then Jays interim manager Don Wakamatsu came out to argue and then with two outs Desmond Jennings broke up Henderson's no hitter and just like against Ricky Romero in Tampa he did in style by hammering a homer and this one was a two-run homer to take a 2-1 lead after three innings. Then after that it was the Evan Longoria show as he lead off the fourth and the sixth inning with solo homers to give him 10 homers in August and he had 14 before August and Henderson left after six innings and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits with 2 walks along with 6 strike outs. Then John Jaso homered to lead off Joel Carreno and he pitched two innings and gave up a run and 2 hits with 2Ks and Wil Ledezma was wild in the ninth and throw a number of wild pitches after Matt Joyce lead off the inning with a double and Matt Joyce went to third on the first wild pitch and then he scored on a wild pitch that bounced off the board behind Molina and came back to him and if he dove for the plate he could of been out but he waited a split sec thinking about if he wanted to toss the ball to Wil and the Rays won 6-1.

In the last week the Jays have scored 11 runs in 6 games and the most surprising thing is that the Jays are only 2 and 4 in those games and the Jays are not hitting like with Adam Lind who is 17 for 90 in August (22 games) and is 17 for 103 in his last 25 games and to go with Edwin Encarnacion who is 7 for 38 in his last 10 games. This is the kind of thing that is making Jose Bautista go crazy along with Bautista not getting the calls he had gotten over the past season and a bit even though he is still hitting strong as he is hitting .355 (11 for 31) with 3 homers and 5 RBIs with 12 walks and 11Ks in his past 10 games.

Lets see how Luis Perez does in his second Major League start

Tom Mehegan

Jeff Francis plays his first game in his major league career in Canada and puts on a show

So the Royals came into the game in the series out hitting the Jays 25-11 in the first two games and the Jays had not out hit the Royals in either game and the Jays were lucky to be even in the series and tonight it was all about Vancouver, BC own Jeff Francis who came into the game 4 and 14 with a 4 ERA and he just controlled the Jays to only three hits in the first 6 inning which was his first ever Major League appearance in Canada. While Brett Cecil in 6 plus innings gave up 5 runs on 9 hits and a walk with 3Ks and gave up 3 more singles before the end of the top of the seventh inning and the Royals were out hitting the Jays 12-3 and the Royals were lead by a Francoeur RBI single, Salvador Perez RBI single, Mike Moustakas RBI single, Johnny Giavotella RBI single, Melky Cabrera had a solo homer his 17 on the season along two hits, and Billy Butler had 2 hits. Then the Jays bats woke up during the last three innings as in the seventh J.P. hit his 20th homer which was a two-run shot, in the eighth Brett Lawrie had a RBI triple and came home on a J.P. sac fly, and in the ninth Edwin Encarnacion hit his 13th homer another two-run shot while the Jays had 7 hits in the last three innings. The Royals matched the Jays move for move as Billy Butler had his third of four hits in the game and it was a two run RBI double in the eighth and in the ninth Mike Moustakas had a RBI double while Mitch Maier had a sac fly. So the bullpen could not hold the Royals down as Shawn Camp gave up 2 runs on 6 hits in 1.1 inning pitched, Rommie Lewis gave up two runs in 0.1 inning pitched but Jesse Litsch pitched 1-2-3 in the ninth inning.

The Royals came into the series 19-39 on the road this season and had lost the last 9 series in the Rogers Centre and left with the series win and the Royals won the season series 4 and 3 this season which is not good if the Jays want to be a contender in the wild card picture they need to dominate the teams like the Royals. Also John Farrell left the bench with pain in his side and was taken away from the team early to get checked out and more info to come later about this.

The Jays need to show everybody this is their house and need to take the Rays down in the four game series

Tom Mehegan

Sad news about former Blue Jay pitcher Mike Flanagan

Mike Flanagan was born on December 16, 1951 in Manchester, New Hampshire and was Originally drafted by the Houston Astros but did not sign because of an arm injury and then the Orioles drafted him in the seventh round of the 1973 draft.

Yesterday Mike Flanagen was found behind his Sparks community of Baltimore County home and the Maryland medical examiner reported that he died from self infected gun shot wound to the head and it seems that he was worried about financial matters. He was a CY Young winner in 1979 as he won 23 games while with only 9 losses with 5 shutouts and he won 141 games as a Orioles while he then spent parts of 4 seasons away from the Orioles as he traded to the Blue Jays late in '87 as the Jays fell apart and lost their last 7 games which allowed the Tigers to sneak passed them and get into the playoffs. He was 26 and 27 as a Blue Jay and the most memorable moment would be a moment he would like to forget as in the '89 ALCS Mr Juiced himself (Jose Canseco) hit a 500 level shot at the Skydome (now known as the Rogers Centre). When he went back to the Orioles in '91 as a free agent to become a middle reliever for his final 2 seasons in his 18 season career that began with the Orioles in 1975 and he in '91 was apart of a four pitcher no-hitter with pitchers Bob Milacki, Mark Williamson, and Greg Olson while in the same season was the final Orioles pitcher to pitch in Memorial Stadium and then after a disastrous in '92 he retired as he had a 8.05 ERA in 34 innings.

His big moments with the Orioles were he helped them make the playoffs with a 12 and 4 record with an ERA of 3.30 in 20 games as he had his first of two major injuries in this season which was a knee injury as the Orioles won the World Series in '83. He also made an All-Star game in '78 and he had career numbers of 167 wins and 141 loses with 1491Ks in 2770 inning pitched with an ERA of 3.90.

After her retired he was the Orioles and at other times he was a pitching coach twice ('95 & '98), he was the Orioles broadcaster ('96-7, '99-'02), and then was in the Orioles front office including assistant GM and executive vice president of baseball operations until '08 and finished in broadcasting booth since '10 til his death.

Gone to soon

Tom Mehegan

Brett Lawrie breaks out of a slump while the real action was outside the Rogers Centre

So fans at the Rogers Centre watching Frank Francisco trying to save his 11 game in 15 tries snd then after he did get his 11 save those same fans went out of the building where for the second time in four days as the skies had opened up and we got an lightening show of grand status and people where running for cover.

Ricky Romero struggled through 6 innings and just was not the same pitcher that he had been for a month as he gave up 8 hits and 4 walks and even hit the first batter of the game Alex Gordon who scored the first run in 5 games that was not a solo homer as Billy Butler doubled him home and then in the third inning Gordon walked and Billy Butler singled him home. Then Alex Gorden said enough is enough U walked me and hit me now I am going to take U deep Romero and that is what he did as he hit a solo shot to lead of the fifth but other than that Romero kept the Jays in the game as he stranded 8 Royals on base and had two double plays turned behind him.

Brett Lawrie came into his fourth inning at bat and he was 0 for his last 10 so with the game tied at 2 and Edwin Encarnacion on first he tripled to give the Jays a 3-2 lead and then in his next at bat leading off the seventh inning he went deep of Louis Coleman who came in to start the seventh and the homer propelled the Jays to a 4-3 win to even the series. Royals starter Luke Hochevar pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits with a walk along with 5 Ks and his third pitch to Yunel Escobar hit him and he had some words for Hochevar as he stood at the plate looking at him and then the umpire escorted him to first base which brought Jose Bautista who on the third pitch he saw said nobody hits a blue Jay as he sent a no doubter from the point when ball meet bat to tie the game at 2.

Jesse Litsch came in for the seventh and gave up a liner to Billy Butler that new center fielder Darin Mastroianni (as Colby Rasmus got hurt going after balls on Tuesday night) dove and it hit off his glove and went to the wall Darin who will be 26 on Friday recovered and held Butler to a double. Then it was up to Litsch to buckle down to keep the Jays lead as he had Butler on third with one out and struck out Jeff Francoeur looking and then got Johnny Giavotella to fly out to Bautista to end the inning. Then for the eighth inning Casey Janssen with two outs walked Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar but then he was the one to finally retire Alex Gordon as he got him to pop up to Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar to end the inning and then to finish the gan Francisco walked Melky Cabrera but then Billy Butler lined out to Yunel, Eric Hosmer struck out on a ball that J.P. held onto to record the out, and then finally Francoeur lined out to Bautista to end the game and give Litsch a win out of the bullpen.

Kelly Johnson is taken his sorry ass time to get to the T dot something about have to go back to Arizona to pack him stuff and find his passport (U only need it when U visit the Blue Jays or get traded to them) and it just happened that both Johnny Mac and Arron Hill were in the lineup tonight for the diamond backs and supposedly Johnson will be in town tomorrow just like Mike Napoli was actually in Toronto as a Blue Jay.

BC native Jeff Francis (4 and 14 with a era over 4) against Brett Cecil who finds an inning to blow up in so it is going to be an interesting rubber match tomorrow

Tom Mehegan

Blue Jays do not come ready to play the lowly Royals as they lose the opener

So Brandon Morrow pitched a 1-2-3 first inning but then in the second inning he started to leave pitches up and even though the Royals have lost way more than they have won but like most players in the majors get hittable pitches even when its coming at them @ 97 miles an hour so the first 5 batters reached base before getting an out which included a lead off homer by Eric Hosmer to go with RBI singles by Johnny Giavotella and Salvador Perez to give the Royals a quick 3-0 lead. Then in the fifth inning after Morrow worked through the third and fourth inning without given up a run he ended up given up 3 more run before leaving the game including a Billy Butler solo homer, Johnny Giavotella RBI double, and a Salvador Perez RBI triple to give the Royals a 6-0 lead after 5 innings. Brandon Morrow who throws fast and hard through 4.2 inning pitched and gave up 6 runs on 11 hits with a walk and 5 Ks in what is one of his worst outings on the season and now is 9 and 8 on the season.

Then there was the soft throwing Bruce Chen who has pitched for more teams than Brett Farve has begged to let him be their quarterback and he has been a starter, a reliever, and now a starter again and the Jays the first time through the order the Jays were not able to get a hit and even worst Chen does not strike out batters and in the second and third with his mid 80's fastball the same speed as his other pitches and maxed out at 88 struck out 5 batters. Yunel Escobar loved hitting against Chen as he broke a 0 for 15 streak and had two of the Jays 4 hits in the game including a three run homer to cut the lead in half 6-3 after 6 innings and instead the team hit more like Jose Bautista who went 0 for 3 against Chen with 2 of his 3 strike outs against him too. The Jays had something going again in the ninth against Royals closer Joakim Soria as Thames doubled and scored on an Adam Lind RBI single but that is as close as they would get as the Royals win 6-4.

Wil Ledezma made relief appearance since being called up again a gave up a hit in his inning pitched with a K but it was Joel Carreno made his debut and pitched 3.1 innings pitched gave up 4 hits and 2 Ks which are some bright spots along with Eric Thames for ever assist nailing Mike Moustakas at second to lead off the fourth inning.

Jays need to wake up and be ready for the final two games of this series

Tom Mehegan

Jose Molina finally gets awake up call as Jays call up a defensive catcher

So yes Jose Molina has been swing a very good bat this season hitting .302 with 2 homers and 11 RBIs to go with 10 doubles and a triple while having 13 walks along with 21Ks in 39 games but it is the lack of desire of playing defense as he has let a lot of balls get behind him and time after time he does not go hard after them. He has caught 9 of 32 of runners (28%) and allowed 8 passed balls in 37 games by the game which in comparison with the Yankees in 2009 in 49 games caught 9 of 32 runners but only had 3 passed balls for the World champs and in 2008 he caught 97 games he caught 33 runners in 75 attempts (44%) which means he can be a much better defensive catcher but instead he is just collecting his 1.2 million dollar contract.

J.P. Arencibia has also struggled with a batting average of .213 in 97 games with 19 homers, 14 doubles, and 3 triples with 28 walks compared to 107 Ks which can be better especially getting on base .277 and getting hits only 74 hits so far this season but it is his first full season with the Blue Jays. Defensively he tries to throw out runners from his knees instead of jumping up and throwing and it has cost him as he only thrown out 19 of 80 runners (24%) with 11 passed balls but does go after them harder than Molina.

So the Jays have called up Brian Jeroloman who is batting .240 (65 for 271) with 2 homers and 26 RBIs with 9 doubles to go with 38 walks and 72 Ks but more importantly 9 errors in 79 games behind the plate so lets hope he given more of Molina defensive duties and hope that he can do much better because U can not get any worst.

Molina does want to be here

Tom Mehegan

Arron Hill and Johnny Mac traded for Kelly Johnson

Kelly Johnson is coming to the Toronto Blue Jays for Arron Hill and they are basically the same player as they are both are having horrible hitting numbers this season but both have had huge numbers in the past and both of them are going to be free agent.

Kelly Johnson is hitting .209 (90 for 430) but when he gets hits they are extra base hits with 46 extra base hits ( 5 triples, 23 doubles, and 18 homers) with 49 RBIs but he is a power hitter and like most power hitters if they do not tag a ball then they swing right through with the bat and miss the ball (132Ks) and they are not usually patient like Jose Bautista (instead of 103 walks he has 44 walks). To go with the numbers Kirk Gibson had lost all confidence in Johnson as he has been benched like 3 or 4 times over the last week and hoped that batting practice would help him instead but not really and has been hitting .171 (6 for 35) with a single RBI with no long balls with 2 walks and 10 Ks.

Arron Hill is hitting worst than Johnny Mac (.225 to .250) and Arron Hill has 6 homers, 15 doubles, a triple with 45 RBI with 23 walks and 53Ks so Hill is not playing well as he in his last 10 games is hitting .179 (7 for 39) with a homer and 5 RBIs with no walk and 6Ks. While Johnny Mac has been so good recently that he has taken Arron Hill on a number of occasion in the recent past and his past 10 games Johnny Mac is hitting .423 (11 for 26) with 4 RBIs and 2Ks.

Kelly Johnson has had two good years in 07 & 08 hitting .282 (301 for 1068) with 28 HRs with 65 doubles, 16 triples, and 137 RBIs with 131 walks and 230Ks in 297 games and then the next season in 2009 in 106 games he hit .224 (68 for 303) with 8 homers, 20 doubles, 3 triples with 29 RBIs along with 32 walks and 54Ks. Then after being traded to Arizona by the Atlanta Braves he had a comeback season in 154 games with 26 homers with 71 RBIs with 36 doubles, and 5 triples while walking 79 and 141 Ks with a batting average of .284 (166 for 585). So a new in environment he may have a better end to the season or Adeiny Hechavarria maybe brought up in September as he is tearing up triple A in 11 games hitting .435 (20 for 46) with a homer, 6 RBIs, 3 double, and 5 walks to go with 7Ks.

Arron Hill was good before the 2010 season as in his first 5 seasons was hitting .285 with 64 homers (including 36 homers in '08) with 296 RBIs (108 RBIs in '08) and had 151 doubles (47 in '07), 8 triples, and 175 walks to go with 338 Ks in 533 games. Then over the last almost seasons in 242 games he has batted .213 (198 for 924) with 32 homer and 113 RBIs with 37 doubles and a triple while walking 64 to go with 138Ks so he has had a rough patch and hopefully with the new environment in Arizona.

Will see if Kelly Johnson can turn it around and have a future with Blue Jays or someone will be come in and try to be the second baseman of the futire

Tom Mehegan

Luis Perez and Casey Janssen one hit A's with a lot of help from the returning Butista

So after having 29 appearances out of the bullpen and today Luis Perez had his first start and did not look out of place as he retired the first 15 batters and had a perfect game into the sixth inning with a running grab at his shoe top by Jose Bautista in the fourth inning and then he made a over the head catch in the fifth. Also in the fifth inning too the umpire was very nice to him as he got behind Conor Jackson with two outs 3 and 0 Jackson felt it was a four pitch walk so he started to first before the umpire made a call so he called a strike and then after a foul off Jackson took a high inside pitch and was called out of strikes. Then in the six Perez tank was empty and was fighting his pitches and walked Cliff Pennington to open the inning and broke up the the perfect game and then after Kurt Suzuki put down a bunt that was almost turned into a double play by Johnny Mac who replaced the struggling Yunel Escobar (2 for 26 on the road trip) and then Luis Perez walked Scott Sizemore. Then Jemile Weeks singled to Colby Rasmus lazily got on ball into the infield to load the bases (Bautista showed Rasmus in the ninth what can happen when U do not go all out) but Luis Perez got his eighth ground ball which was turned into an inning ending double play by started by Johnny Mac off the bat off Coco Crisp. Luis Perez throw 80 pitches in the game (his highest out of the pen was 64) and gave up a hit with 2 walks to go with 4Ks and Casey Janssen pitched the final 3 innings in no hit fashion striking out 5 batters and the most surprising thing in the game was Frank Francisco did not come out in the ninth and the TV broadcast even said that he was coming into the game put instead it Frank Francisco on the bench with his hands in his face when he knew the camera was on him and I guess he warmed up did not feel well.

A's pitcher Guillermo Moscoso pitched well as well as his 3 hitter against the Jays a week and a half ago and after the lead off hitter in the game Arron Hill got a single the game had to wait until the sixth when we saw Coco Crisp do his first of two lost the ball in the sun and lazily go after it as Eric Thames ended up with a double and then Moscoso buckled down and Thames did not get to third base. Then he gave up his third hit on the game which came on the tenth pitch to Jose Bautista slammed his 36th homer to stay in the lead in homers and gave the Janssen all the support he need and he also barely missed a Bautista home run target. Guillermo Moscoso left after 8 innings and gave up a run on 3 hits and a walk to with 7Ks and was created with the loss and Perez was the winner and Janssen got his second save on the season with a 1-0 Jays win.

In the ninth Arron Hill ran out a ball and was safe at first but was called out but he still had one of his better days and then Coco Crisp lost a Bautista fly ball in the sun and with his lazily going after the ball attitude Bautista ended up with a triple.

Jays come home to face the Royals on Tuesday after a winning road trip

Tom Mehegan

Johnny Mac error brings in the winning run

Henderson Alvarez faced a line up of all left hand batters who are batting .167 and he got an early lead as A's starter Gio Gonzalez who came into the game 1 and 5 since the all-star beak and with one out Eric Thames had his first of two hits and then Yunel Ecobar who took Bautista's spot in the lineup flied out for out number 2 and that was followed by Adam Lind being hit on the right arm and left the game after the inning was over but first Edwin Encarnacion had a RBI single. Brett Lawrie was being pitched inside and on a 2 and 0 pitch and in the first he fouled out to first base to end the inning which was the only inning that the Jays had a rally while flied out in the fourth and struck out in the seventh and will need to make an adjustment which he will do. In the bottom of the first inning Hideki Matsui had a RBI single which was the only earned run that Alvarez gave up and he throw a lot more sliders which the King said he should try and he only got ahead on the count 10 of 24 times which the King also said he should do it more and he still does need to do it more. In the bottom of the third Johnny Mac made a great diving play and got the third out of the inning and then he had a double play ball hit to him but the ball went off his glove in the fourth and Brandon Allen went first to third on Mac's fielding error and then scored on a double play started by Mac and it was turned into a unearned run and became the winning run for the A's. Alvarez pitched 6 innings and gave up 2 runs (1 earned) on 7 hits with an one walk and 3Ks while Gio Gonzalez set down 19 of 20 batters which included setting down 15 in a row and set down 22 of his last 24 Blue Jay batters as he went 8 innings and up a run on 4 hits with a walk along with 9Ks.

The Jays Bullpen came undone in the eighth inning and they gave up 3 runs in the inning and it made it a 5-1 victory and Rommie Lewis came in for his major league debut and faced Josh Willingham and the umpire made a bad call on a fair/foul ball and it was called foul when it should of been a fair ball and U would think it would play in the Jays favor but in the end Willingham hit a two run homer for his 22Nd homer and the A's only have 81 homers now.

Eric Thames had like 50 people to come see him in his home coming and had two of the four hits for the Jays and now have 7 singles in the last two games and now Luis Perez pitches tomorrow to try to even the series and give them a winning road trip.

Ok Blue Jays Lets Play Ball

Tom Mehegan

Jose Bautista scratched before the game and Adam Lind left the game in the first

Jose Bautista was scratch just before the Saturday's game against the Oakland A's with stiffness in the neck after taken batting practice and is day - to - day and most likely be in the lineup tomorrow against the A'a.

Then in the top of the first inning Adam Lind was hit on his right arm between his shoulder and his elbow by A's Left-hander Gio Gonzalez and created a dead arm feeling for Lind and as he was the DH he stayed in the game to run but when the clean up spot came up Mark Teahen took his at bat. He left the game to put heat pack on it and most likely he has been taken to the local hospital for x-rays on his right arm and we will not know if he will be day - to - day or if he will sit for a bit until after the results of the x-rays.

we will see

Tom Mehegan

Jays get shutdown by Harden as maybe the Jays next closer while Alex is looking fir an extension

10 days ago BC native Rich Harden and Brett Cecil went head to head at the Rogers Centre where Harden pitched 7 innings given up a run on 5 hits with 2 walks and 8Ks while Cecil pitched 7 innings and he gave up 3 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks to go with 5Ks.

Tonight night it looked like it was going to be a different pitcher as he had a fielding error to allow Yunel Escobar to reach base which was followed by walks to Eric Thames and Jose Bautista to load the bases with no outs in the top of the first inning but then Harden throw 9 straight strikes to strike out Adam Lind, Edwin Encarnacion, Colby Rasmus in order to get out of the inning. In the bottom of the first Brett Cecil walked the lead off hitter Jemile Weeks and then with two outs he faced Josh Willingham who has more than 25% of the A's homers (20 of 78) this season and Brett Cecil challenged him instead of working around him or at least not something to handle and Willingham crushed his 21st homer and that was the ball game as the A's won 2-0.

Rich Harden going into the fifth inning had retired 15 of 16 batters and Jose Bautista was the only one to reach base on one of his three walks in the game and then with one out J.P. broke up the no-hitter with a single in the fifth but he did not get any further than first base as Harden struck out Yunel Escobar and Eric Thames which was part of his career high tying 11Ks. While Cecil left two runners on in the second, fourth, and fifth inning but got out of it without given up a run and he pitched 7 innings and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits while walking 5 batters and 4Ks.

Rich Harden gave up a singled to Bautista in the sixth inning and he made it around to third base with two outs but then Colby Rasmus struck out and Rich Harden ended up a 7 inning two hit shutout with 4 walks to go with the 11Ks and before 10 days ago he had pitched horribly against the Blue Jays in his career as he had not won against the Jays and had an ERA of over 6. The A's bullpen in the eighth inning walked Bautista for the third time in the game and he dodge the infielders when Lind hit a ground ball and was safe at second and the stole his sixth base to be on third base but then Edwin Encarnacion fouled out to A's first baseman Brandon Allen to end the inning. Then Andrew Bailey came in to try to finish the game for the A's with one out the other BC native Brett Lawrie singled but when Arron Hill hit into a double play it gave Bailey his 16th save on the season to even the series.

In other news Mike Wilner came up with an idea to try to fix the closer position and he was thinking that with all the injuries that Rich Harden has had over the years and he seems to look like a fragile player that breaks down so he may be a good pitcher to try to be a closer like a Kerry Wood was last year or a couple of years ago. So the thing is that Rich Harden if he puts his effort into an inning instead of 7 or 8 innings he may last longer and still be effective as a pitcher and it looks like he can also work out of jams.

Also rumor right now the Jays Brass are looking into given Alex a contract extension and if he gets a two or three extension it maybe a good idea but if it is like a five year deal it maybe a little to long right now.

The Jays road trip is still looking good and tomorrow as Henderson Alvarez continues to look for his first MLB win and maybe talking with King Felix in Seattle may have helped a little

Tom Mehegan

Ricky Romero stays on a roll as he goes the distance

Ricky Romero was amazing again and had his second complete game of the season as shutout the A's on 3 hits while walking 2 batters and struck out 6 A's and throw 111 pitches (66 s - 45 b) and Romero retired the last 15 batters he faced and in his last 5 games opposites are hitting .107 (14 for 131) with a ERA of 0.87 in 40.1 innings pitched. The only runs he gave up were 4 solo shots in those 5 games and he has a 30 strike outs and 11 walks for a ratio of 2.73 and a whip of 0.62 as he might be up for player of the week two weeks in a roll as has given up a run on 5 hits and walk 4 and struck out 9 in 16 innings pitched over his 2 starts this week and has won his last straight starts and is now 12-9 on the season.

While the Bats have come alive with another 7 runs and 11 hit attack again tonight as Yunel Escobar was the only starter that had problems with A's starter Trevor Cahill as he went 0 for 3 with the only 2 strikeouts against Cahill and ended up 0 for 5 with 3Ks by the end of the game. So everybody else that started had at least a hit and that attack was lead by Colby Rasmus who went 3 for 4 with his second homer (14th) in back to back days which was a two-run shot and he also added his 21st double on the season too and that was helped by Brett Lawrie's 2 hits which included a RBI single to open the scoring to with a double as well. J.P. had only 1 hit but it was a big one as he had a two-run single and Encarnacion and Lind had the other RBIs in a 7-0 victory over the A's and it got so out of hand that Mike McCoy played center field for Rasmus in the bottom of the eighth and Mark Teahen hit for Adam Lind in the top of the ninth and played first base for him in the bottom of the inning.

The Jays have scored 30 runs on 41 hits and 17 walks so far on this road trip and have a 3 and 1 record so far on it while getting rid of the pieces that are not fitting in as Trever Miller was sent backing, Jon Rauch is on the DL, and now Brad Mills has been sent back to the minors as Joel Carreno will be called up from Double A New Hampshire and as expected Luis Perez will be pitching against the A's on Saturday.

Brett Cecil Vs Rich Harden tomorrow and lets hope that Harden does not pitch anywhere near as he pitched last week

Tom Mehegan

Jays take the series in Seattle as Morrow shows the M's what they gave up on and Lawrie almost doubled attendance

Brandon Morrow was in a grove tonight as he showed the M's what can happen when don't jerk him around as he struck 5 straight M's in a row after getting the first two batters out on ground balls and he retired the first 8 batters he faced 11 of the first 12 batters and striking out 6 before Mike Carp singled to extend his hit streak to 17 games but then Morrow struck out Casper Wells to end the fourth and give Morrow 7 strike outs. Then he struck out the last two batters in the fifth and then struck out the first batter in the sixth to give him 10 strike outs while only facing 18 batters but then it all unraveled for Morrow as he walked Ichiro and then Franklin Gutierrez doubled him home followed by another walk. This was followed by Morrow's 11K of the evening and that was followed by Casper Wells being hit by a pitch to load the bases but ended up striking out the side as he struck out Trayvon Robinson to give him 12Ks of the night and he finished 6 innings given up a run on 3 hits and walking two.

While the Jays got three hits off the M's starter Blake Beavan first time through the order as Bautista had a single and the No. 9 hitter Jose Molina had a single but it was the gift that M's catcher Josh Bard gave the Jays as was crouching not low enough during the game and it hurt Beaven as it looked like he had thrown strike three looking past Edwin Encarnacion but instead it was called a ball on a 0 and 2 count which lead to Beavan leaving the next pitch up in the zone and Edwin went yard with it as he now has 12 homers on the season to give the Jays a 1-0 lead. With Molina's single on the Jays started their second time through the order which started with a Yunel Escobar single and after a double play by Thames Jose Bautista walked so U had runners on the corners for Adam Lind and he went yard with his 22Nd homer of the season a three run bomb to give the Jays a 4-0 lead which was followed by Edwin being hit by a pitch but then was caught stealing to end the third innings. it continued in the fourth was Colby Rasmus leading off the inning was his second homer as a Blue Jay and 13 of the season so that 5 of the first 6 batters in the lineup reached base the second time around with the exception being Eric Thames who saw his 8 game hitting streak is over as he went 0 for 3 with a walk and he had hit .429 during the streak (12 for 28) with 3 homers, 5 RBIs, 2 walks, 6Ks, and a .450 obp. So for the seventh inning Jessie Listch came in and a walk a batter but did not out of the inning after have two errors behind him and one allowed Jack Wilson to reach when Brett Lawrie had a throwing error to first but then Ichiro hit into a double play to end the inning as he only had one hit in the whole series. While Casey Janssen and Frank Francisco both had 1-2-3 innings to close out the Jays 5-1 victory and one of the more surprising things is that Jose Bautista is still arguing when his strike zone is squeezed as he was called out on strikes his last two plate appearances and right now he is two homers and ten RBIs off last years pace but is still batting over 40 points higher than last season.

The Brett Lawrie effect in Seattle was amazing as it sounded like a home game for the Jays as the Jays were being cheered more than the M's and when Eric Thames took a seat in the crowd after going into the crowd to catch a ball at he actual caught there were all Jays fans around him. Also in the three game series at the beginning of the season there were a total of just over 41,000 fans in the stands while for this three games series there were over 79,000 fans which is 38,000 more and 3,000 less than double the April appearance which is simply amazing.

Jays take 2 of 3 from the M's and now head to meet the A's to give them the same treatment they gave us in T.O.

Tom Mehegan

Blue Jays got some great performances but not from Mills as the Jays evened the series

The Jays bats just lite up the M's starter Jason Vargas in the first inning the Jays batted around which the started with the bases loaded with 2 outs in a scoreless game but then Colby Rasmus had a bases clearing double to give the Jays a 3-0 lead which was followed by a RBI single by Brett Lawrie and the inning was finished by Adam Lind's 6 homer which was a two run homer to give the Jays a 6-0 lead after one inning. So that gave Brad Mills a 6-0 lead before throwing a pitch and when he did throw one he looked good struck out two of the three batters he faced in the first inning while having a 1-2-3 inning and throw a nice 14 pitches but then he came out for the second inning and he was not the same pitcher as he left the ball up and it was crushed by the M's bats as he walked Mike Carp walked and Casper Wells hit a two-run homer and the next batter Miguel Olivo smacked his 15th homer and then Mills walked another batter before getting out of the inning with a 6-3 Jays lead. In the third inning Brad Mills came out and he pitched just the same as the second inning as the M's loaded the bases with two outs and then Trayvon Robinson stepped to the plate and hit a two run single and then Kyle Seager hit a RBI single to tie the game @ 6 and Brad Mills throw 56 pitches in the final two innings he pitched and it is most likely his last start for Blue Jays.

Then Luis Perez came into pitch the next 4 innings and did not have a single 1-2-3 inning but he did only gave up a run on 3 hits along a hit batter as well as 2 walks and 3Ks and he controlled the M's while the Jays put up 4 runs in the fifth inning as Colby Rasmus came to the plate again with the bases juiced but it did not last as Tom Wilhelmsen was good at bouncing the ball to the plate and that included Bautista coming home on a wild pitch as he walked for the final of his three straight walks in his first 3 at bats to open the game. Then Rasmus had a sac fly to score another run and Arron Hill then also had a sec fly and then J.P. had a RBI single and the Jays were up 10-6 and then in the sixth inning the Jays put up three more runs as with a runner on Jose Bautista finally got a pitch to hit and parked a two-run homer for his 35th homer of the season and Arron Hill finished off the scoring with a RBI single to make the final 13-7.

The Jays had a big games from Luis Perez who may pitch in Mills spot in Oakland while Colby Rasmus had 4 RBIs and so did Arron Hill who went 2 for 4 and then there was the guy filling the seats Brett Lawrie had his first three hit game in his major league career with a RBI and scored two runs. Both Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion walked three times as the M's walked 7 batters in the game and 5 of them came around to score which was compared to 2Ks of the Blue Jays batters.

Brett Lawrie juiced up the attendance to just over 23 K when the highest attendance the last time the Jays were there was 16 K.

Tom Mehegan

The Blue Jays remake their bullpen heading into September

Before the game the Jays did a makeover of bullpen as the the crazy big man known as Jon Rauch went to the hospital and went into surgery to have an appendectomy on Tuesday morning after he complained of stomach pain and this would be similar to the stomach pain Jays have been having all season long watching the bullpen explode and cost the Jays a number of games this season. So Jon Rauch with the surgery has been put on the 15 day DL which means he will be out until September and most likely it will be his last appearance as a Blue Jay.

Also Trever Miller was award for receiving the Jays one millionth blow save by the Jays bullpen this season an he received an one way ticket away from the team as he was designated for assignment and he was extra baggage in the Colby Rasmus trade and it was time for him to go.

The Jays are replacing these two non-factors with a couple of Lefties in Wil Ledezma and Rommie Lewis who are coming in from Las Vegas and Wil Ledezma pitched in 2 games out of the bullpen with the Jays earlier this season in 3 innings and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits with 3 walks and 5 Ks along with given up a homer out of the bullpen. He has appeared in 36 games and has given up 24 earned runs on 49 hits with 19 walks and 64Ks while given up 6 homers in Las Vegas this season while he also has 3 saves on the farm as well. Then there is Rommie Lewis has pitched in 42 games and worked 58.2 inning pitched and gave up 43 earn runs on 71 hits while given up 10 homers and walked 29 and 50Ks with an ERA of 6.60 in Las Vegas with 4 saves.

As the Jays world turns

Tom Mehegan

The M's hit back-to-back homers to spoil Brett Lawrie home coming

Mike Carp which came off Trevor Miller and Casper Wells which came off Jon Rauch went back to back in the eighth inning to give the M's a 6-5 win and Brandon League had his 30 save but at least we have Brandon Morrow.

Brett Lawrie in his real home coming in Seattle really put butts in the seats as there were over 28,000 fans in the seats and he did not disappoint the fans as he rocked M's starter Michael Pineda in his second at bat he hit his third homer and it gave the Jays a 5-4 lead while his parents were really happy and high fifing everyone. The Jays got homers on their first 3 hits as Eric Thames hit his 8th homer on the season with Yunel Escobar walk on in the first and then Adam Lind hit his 21st homer with Jose Bautista's walk on base and the third was Lawrie's homer. While the M's came back every time as they put up 3 runs on 2 hits with a walk and a hit batter in the second as Trayvon Robinson had a RBI double as Eric Thames could not figure out to see the ball and got a late break and then struggled see the ball as he was turning around to find the ball again on his way to the wall where the ball tipped off Thames glove. The M's also got Jack Wilson a RBI single and Ichiro had a sac fly to give the M's a 3-2 lead and with the Jays up 4-3 in the the third Mike Carp hit his first of two homers on the game and this one was off Jays rookie starting pitcher Henderson Alvarez to tie the game at 4 all.

Henderson Alvarez pitched into the sixth inning and gave up four runs with 6 hits and a walk and 3Ks with the hit batter and he throw 96 pitches (62 s - 34 b) and then Jesse Litsch pitched 2 inning one hitter to get into the eighth inning. Michael Pineda pitched 5 innings and gave up 5 runs on 6 hits while walking 4 batters and 6Ks and then the bullpen finished strong with four innings of 3 hitter but Bautista still had a chance to keep the game going with Thames on first and grounded out to end the game.

It was surprising that Brett Lawrie struck out twice in the game and that there were 6 homers hit in the pitchers park in Seattle and Safeco Field gives up 1.36 a game which the second lowest number in the AL as only the ball park in Oakland McAfee Coliseum has given up less with a 1.25 average.

So it is sad that the Jays lost this game and will need a good performance from Brad Mills tomorrow night

Tom Mehegan

Edwin Encarnacion has RBI single in the tenth to keep the perfect extra inning home record

Edwin Encarnacion drove in the winning run with a RBI single in the tenth inning as the Jays won 5-4 and kept their perfect extra innings record @ the Rogers Centre this season. The Jays had a good game from Jose Bautista after getting a day off yesterday and went 3 for 4 with his 34th homer which had followed Eric Thames 7th homer to go with Thames's RBI ground out. Then there was Brett Lawrie who had his only hit in the ninth inning which was a RBI double to tie the game at 4 all and even though Bautista had a good game but the guy who was born on the same day as Bautista who is Rajai Davis did not as he was a pinch hitter for Thames in the eighth inning and did fight off a lot of pitches and after he hit the ball on the ground he got hurt running to first and it turns out that he has a torn hamstring and Mike McCoy is back once again. Johnny Mac had another two hits again and he is now hitting .248 as he took Arron Hill's spot in the lineup again and it was surprising to see no Hill two games in a row.

Brett Cecil struggled @ the beginning of the game after getting the first two Angels in order he gave up a single to Bobby Abreu and that was followed by Torii Hunter hit a two-run homer to give the Angels a 2-0 lead and then he gave up 3 hits over the next 6 inning but he still gave up a RBI sac fly to Alberto Callaspo to score Peter Bourjos who had hit a triple in the third to give the Angels a 3-0 lead and the final run scored when Peter Bourjos doubled in Bobby Wilson's double. The Angels starter Dan Haren took the 3-0 lead and slowly the Jays got back into the game and gave up 3 runs on 5 hits with 5 Ks and left with the lead so the pitching was as good as advertised and the Jays ended up 3 and 3 on the six game home stand and if the Jays were a better team they would of taken at least 2 of 3 from the A's to give them a 4 and 2 home stand.

So the Jays are two games over 500 again and the Jays are heading to the west coast for a week with the M's (3) and the A's (4) so lets hope for a good road trip

Tom Mehegan

Adam Lind hits his 100th Major league homer in style as Romero shows the Angels why he was AL player of the week

Adam Lind hit his 100th homer in the majors in style as he torched Jared Weaver in the fifth inning for a grand slam to cement the Jays victory @ the time 7-1 and later in the inning Canadian Mark Teahen who replaced Jose Bautista, who got the day off after the nightmare of a game last night, hit his first homer as a Jay which was followed by a ball hit by the more famous Canadian Brett Lawrie that looked like it had a chance to go out and probably one of the first times in major league history that Canadian born players go back to back but Lawrie still ended up with a triple. Jared Weaver was the opposite of the guy we meet at the beginning of the season in Anaheim were we basically could not buy a hit as today he was rocked by Edwin Enarnacion in the first inning which was a two-run shot and Encarnacion's 11th of the season, in the fifth he gave up the big shot to Lind, and on his last pitched he throw Wells just turned and watched Teahen take him deep as he gave up 8 runs on 8 hits with 2 walks along with 3Ks in 4.2 innings pitched as the Jays went on to a 11-2 white washing of the Angels.

Ricky Romero on the other hand started quick throwing 3 of the first 4 pitches to start the game as he retired Maicer Izturis with a ground ball but then he throw 10 straight balls as he walked the next two batters and J.P. had been out to visit and that did not work so when he fell behind 2 and 0 to clean up hitter Mark Trumbo the pitching coach came for a visit and that did the trick as Romero throw a strike and then got Trumbo to ground out into a double play with the very next pitch to end the inning as Romero throw 11 balls and 5 strikes in the first inning. After that Ricky Romero showed the Angels over the next 6 innings why he was named player of the week for the American League instead of the Angels's Santana as he did not give up a hit until the lead off batter in the fifth Alberto Callaspo crushed a ball for his 5 homer of the season and after former Blue Jay Howard Kendrick got a single off him he went through the order again and retired all the Angels in order. So Ricky Romero ended up pitching 7 innings and gave up 1 run on 2 hits with 2 walks and 3Ks along with a very strange hit by pitch of Jeff Mathis to open the third inning that was call by the third base umpire after Mike Scioscia came out to argue that it was a hit by pitch as Jeff Mathis was selling for all he was worth.

Adam Lind as had a chance for another grand slam in the sixth inning and he ended up with a sac fly to give him 5 RBIs in the game as the Jays took a commanding lead with three more runs in the inning as J.P. had a RBI single along with Edwin Encarnacion who had 3 RBIs in the game and is now hitting a remarkable .285.

It was a good move after the nightmare of last night to give Bautista the day off as he will use it to good use while Rasmus is still a little here and there so it dies not hurt to give him a day off as well

Tom Mehegan

Jose Bautista has a very bad game as Jays make it easy for the Angels

Jose Bautista had a bad game tonight and it started with a secure hit and it was turned into a double play by Erick Aybar in the first inning and then again in the fourth inning he hit into a double play as well and he finished the game 0 for 3 with strike out and a walk. Then Bautista the solid defensive player that he is had a throwing error as Peter Bourjos scored and then Bautista had another throwing error which missed Lind and Hill and it allowed Torii Hunter score in the sixth inning.

Brandon Morrow got through the first inning 1-2-3 but then in the second inning he faced former Blue Jay Vernon Wells and the first pitch he throw to him was launched for his 17th homer of the season. Then it all came apart for Morrow as he walked three batters and two outs he gave up a RBI single to Alberto Callaspo who moved to second on the first Bautista throwing error and Torii Hubter had a two-run double along with two walks and it was 4-0 as the Angels scored three runs with two outs.

The Jays were facing Ervin Santana who came in with a 4-0 record and less than a earned run a game over the four games so in the third inning the Jays had something going in the third but ran into outs as Jose Molina with one out hits a ball off the wall and would of had a double but tried for a triple so Wells picked the ball up and gunned him down at third and then Brett Lawrie walked but tried to move into second on a ball that was dropped by Bobby Wilson put it stayed in front of him and he throw out Lawrie at second to end the inning. Ervin Santana pitched a complete game of a run on 7 hits with 2 walks and 6Ks and it was Eric Thames who had 2 hits and his 6th homer to break up Santana's shutout in the ninth inning and Thames had come into the game hitting 3 for 36 for a batting average of 0.83 in his past 9 games.

Jose Bautista is struggling again and this time it is 5 for 35 (1.43) with 11Ks and 7 walks with two homers and 5 RBIs in his last 10 games and the rest of the team is not picking him up as Adam Lind is 8 for 42 with no homers along with 2 RBIs while having no walks and 9Ks in the last 10 games and it does not help losing games at home as they are 29-29 and now back to 500 again with a 59 and 59 overall.

Weaver Vs Romero tomorrow and going to be there

Tom Mehegan

The Jays let down the fans as the Jays lose the rubber match to the A's

Brad Mills faced A's and in the third inning it took him facing the seventh batter in the inning before he could recorded the first out of the inning as he gave up a two run double to Cliff Pennington, a RBI single to Hideki Matsui which was his first hit of the series, Conor Jackson had a two run triple, and it ended with the Blue Jay's 50th wild pitch on the season that scored Conor Jackson to make it 6-0.

After the Jays put up two runs in the fourth inning including Adam Lind picking up a RBI and reaching base on an error on Cliff Pennington and an Edwin Encaracion had a RBI single and then in the sixth Luis Perez had to wait til the fifth batter to finally record the first out of the inning including a Hideki Matsui RBI single and Conor Jackson had a sac fly. The worst part of the inning was with two outs and Ryan Sweeney hit a ball that did not reach the mound and Perez picked it up and he should of just eaten the ball because Sweeney was already at first but Perez turned and wildly to first and it went down the first baseline and the 10th run scored.

J.P. hit his 19th homer a solo shot in the eighth to make the final 10-3 and a sleepy day @ the Rogers Centre and it would be better if Arron Hill did not strike out to end the fourth inning and leaving two runners on and J.P. homer which would tied the game @ 6. Shawn Camp pitched 2 innings of shutout pitching performance while Brad Mills pitched 3 inning and gave up 6 runs, 5 hits, 2 walks, and also struck out 5 batters and it looks like it is only an one inning blow up as he also had a blow up inning in Baltimore as well.

The Jays had 68,000 fans in attendance in the series

Tom Mehegan

Brett Lawrie's grand slam rocked the Rogers Center

So when Brett Lawrie set to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning the Jays were already 1 for 4 with a RBI with the bases loaded but when Brett Lawrie made contact with the ball it took ages and ages to land but when it did it landed in the Blue Jays bullpen for the Jays third grand slam on the season and turned a 3-2 hole into a 6-3 lead and it work up the Blue Jays along with the crowd who waited for a Lawrie curtain call. Brett Lawrie was so excited in the dugout and when he stepped up to the plate in the eighth the crowd were on their feet chanting Lawrie, Lawrie and he did not disappoint as he was inches away from his first multi-homer game and still ran it out for his first ever double and would score on a Rajai Davis RBI single and that had come after an Edwin Encarnacion RBI double in the seventh and it was 8-3 Jays heading into the ninth inning. Jesse Litsch pitched the last 2.2 innings of the game to pick up the save and gave up 2 hits and a solo homer in the ninth to Josh Willingham to make the final 8-4 and it had followed Henderson Alvarez pitched 5.2 inning and 104 pitches and gave up 3 runs on 8 hits with a walk along with 4Ks but it was the fourth inning were he got in trouble throwing 27 pitches and given up 3 runs on 4 hits including given up a home run to David DeJesus. Casey Janssen struck out Cliff Pennington and ending the inning along with picking up the win after given up a single.

The fun happened when A's pitcher Jordan Norberto hit Escobar with a high fastball on the pitch after Davis's RBI single and started walking towards Jordan Norberto who had his back to the plate and Kurt Suzuki stepped in front of him and the Bautista who was in the on deck circle took control and held Escobat back but the benches cleared and even the bullpens as well but in the end Bautista escort Escobar to first base and the first base coach stayed with him.

A's starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez was on the ropes after retiring Rajai Davis to open the game as the next four straight batters reached base including an Adam Lind RBI single and after an Encarnacion walk the bases were loaded and Rasmus flied out to shallow right field and Arron Hill struck out and it began a run of 14 of 16 for Gio Gonzalez. The Jays ended up 2 for 7 with bases juiced tonight which if it was not for that one hit being the homer from Lawrie it would of been a complete disaster for the Jays.

In other news ESPN has come out with a story about the Blue Jays having a guy in the outfield seats who raised his arm when it was a off speed pitch and did not move when it was a fastball and the ESPN article was co-writing by Peter Keating who is the same guy who did the Toronto worst sports town for ESPN. Peter Keating said that his numbers point to the Jays having an advantage @ home where the Rogers centre is the fourth highest home run ball park and seemingly it is the Jays hitting a lot more homer than the opposites but the problem with this is why are the Jays a .500 club @ home and why have the Jays been no-hit at home and it almost happened twice. He has unnamed sources probably like the White Soxs who had a pitcher like give up like 10 runs in 2/3 of an inning which was also the game where throw at Bautista and then there is the Yankees who got clobbered in the first games of a series and their manager came out and accused the Jays of stealing signs but did not have a problem when they drilled the Jays into the ground in the last two game of the series.

19,541 and over 40,000 in the stands for the first two games which usually be the crowd for a 3 game mid-week series against the A's so the crowd tomorrow for the afternoon game is gravy

Tom Mehegan

Henderson Alvarez will start Wednesday against the A's

Henderson Alvarez has been called up by the Blue Jays to make Carlos Villanueva's start tomorrow and the 21-year-old Alvarez has been pitching for the New Hampshire Fisher cats as is 8 and 4 in 15 gams (14 starts) and has a ERA of 2.86 with a complete game and has given up 81 hits and 17 walks along with 66Ks and has given up 7 homers in 88 innings pitched. In his 10 games (9 starts) he is 5-3 with a 2.75 ERA in 59 innings pitched given up 56 hits and 11 walks while fanning 44 batters and given up 18 earned runs and given up 5 homers.

The selling point on Alvarez is that his fastballs maxed out at 100 MPH and the Blue Jays are throwing him against the A's instead of the Angels on the weekend is that the Angels have a tougher batting line-up than the A's do. The Jays will be very careful to not put Alvarez into the right situation because two years ago the Washington Nationals drafted a pitcher out of San Diego State and his name is Stephen Strasburg and they rushed him to the majors because of the hype and now he has not picked up a ball until just recently since a September 3rd arm injury which caused him to have Tommy John surgery. Stephen Strasburg has not thrown a ball in over 11 month and even though Tommy John surgery is not the death sentence it once was and most pitchers are stronger than before the surgery it is still scary and the Jays will not want Alvarez to be worked that hard.

Lets hope Henderson Alvarez pitches well against the A's

Tom Mehegan

Brett Cecil hurt by the long ball while Lawrie brings a few thousand more fans into the stands

Brett Cecil was moving nicely through the A's line-up as he retired the first 8 batters he faced and even was ahead 1-0 as Edwin Encarnacion hit his 10th homer of the season to lead off the second inning and headed into the sixth inning given up a hit, two walk, and even hit Josh Willingham and he got amazing defense behind him in the fifth inning as Brett Lawrie had a diving stop and put out while Yunel Escobar had a leaping catch. Then just like in his last outing Brett Cecil was destroyed by the long ball as with a Cliff Pennington single on and one out Josh Willingham came to plate and said nobody hits me and gets away with it as he gave the A's the lead 2-1 with two-run homer his 18th of the season and then in the seventh Kurt Suzuki lead off the inning his 10th of the season to make it 3-1. Brett Cecil ended the inning and pitched 7 innings and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits with 5Ks and 2 walks while Canadian A's starting Rich harden pitched his best game against the Blue Jays as after Encarnacion homer he only faced two batters above the minimum facing 17 batters to get 15 outs to get into the seventh and the Jays got a walk and a single to lead off the inning so they had runners on the corners but Harden got Hill to pop up and both J.P. and Lawrie to strike out and he left the game given up a run on 5 hits along with 8Ks and 2 walks. The A's got another run when Ryan Sweeney had a RBI single in the top of the ninth inning and then in the bottom of the inning Andrew Bailey came in and he started out throwing 5 straight balls to open the inning including walking Encarnacion who was the first ever Blue Jay to reach base against him in his 7.1 innings he had pitched against the Jays in his career and then he got Colby Rasmus flied out, Arron Hill flied out, and J.P. struck out to end the game to give Harden his first ever win against the Blue Jays.

Yunel Esccobar and Edwin Encarnacion had two hits each while Eric Thames and Colby Rasmus had the other hits as Colby now has a 6 game hit streak and for the A's Kurt Suzuki had two hits as well. On another note Brett Lawrie had bit of a spike on attendance as there were over 20,600 when an A's mid-week game would usually have between 11,000 - 12,000 so that is a jump of 8 to 9 thousand.

Lets see if the Jays can even the series

Tom Mehegan

Brett Lawrie hits his first homer to help the horse known as Ricky Romero win another one

Brett Lawrie hit his first Major League homer off of Alfredo Simon in the sixth inning and that went along with Jose Bastista two-run double with two outs in the third inning to open the scoring off losing pitcher Alfredo Simon as the Jays won going away as Ricky Romero had another amazing 8 inning performance as he gave up 4 hits and struck out 5 while not walking an Oriole and only Mark Reynolds got to him as he showed the Jays his power by hitting two solo homers to account for all the Orioles scoring to give him 26 on the season. Johnny Mac was hitting a hot bat as he had 3 hits to give him an average of 235 when it was below a toonie earlier this season as he hit a RBI double and 2 singles including a RBI single to give him two RBIs in the game and Encarnacion kept swing his hot bat as he had 3 hit including a double his 28th to lead the team and two singles while scoring twice to drive up his average to 277. Colby Rasmus had two more hits including another double to give him 10 hits in 41 at bats with a homer and 4 doubles and 5 RBIs while going 8 for 21 with a homer, 3 doubles, and 3 RBIs in his last 5 games so he picking up steam ready to maybe get on a roll to end the season. Adam Lind on the other hand went o for 5 with 2Ks and is in a bit of a slump while J.P. had a two-run double but that was his only hit of the game as he too struck out and still has a battling average of 216 and might need to be a bit more patient at the plate and the average will jump.

So the Jays go 3-3 on the road should of been at least 4 and 2 but they are bring the circus to town so get your popcorn ready and lets hope nobody does anything stupid on Tuesday with a larger audience

Tom Mehegan

Brandon Morrow was perfect throw 5 and then the defense let him down

Brandon Morrow was perfect throw 5 innings throwing only 57 pitches which included 5 Ks and it was not raining hard and Mark Reynolds had strike twice in the game and Brett Lawrie was looking more comfortable at third making the routine plays look ummm... routine so everything was good for Brandon Morrow and the Jays defense. While Orioles pitcher Chris Tillman was going almost as well as he had only given up 2 hits and had 5 Ks as he stuck out Eric Thames and Jose Bautista in both first inning and the fourth while striking out Adam Lind too to strike out the side of the fourth. the Jays still found their way to being up in the game as Colby Rasmus had one of the two Jays hits as he smacked his first Blue Jay homer in the second inning to make it 1-0 and it could of been even more as Arron Hill lead off with a single but then Edwin Encarnacion grounds into a double play which is more like Encarnacion of past and less like the Encarnacion of the present and get this the first 5 innings took 55 minutes to complete.

Then the sixth hit and it was not pretty at all except that the Jays did get the first three batters in the top of the inning but then that brought Eric Thames and field out to shallow right field and with Jose Molina at third it was not deep enough for him to score and then Bautista stepped to the plate and he flies out to a little bit deeper center field and the ball and Molina meet at the plate it misses the catchers glove and jumps over Molina 2-0 Jays. So then that brings up cleanup hitter Adam Lind with 2 on now and he grounds out to second and the inning over with 3 chances with a runner in scoring position and they end up 0 for 2. In the bottom of the sixth Nolan Reimold lead off and broke up the perfect game by single and with one one out Blake Davis singles and with Reimold on the move it is runners on the corners with one out so a ground ball like the one Encarnacion hit double play in over but instead the ball is hit to Yunel Escobar and he boots it and an earned run scores and then the nice that Nick Markakis fouls out to Brett Lawrie for out number 2. This brings to the plate Adam Jones who has almost half of his 19 homers with 2 outs (9) and when he steps to the plate with runners in scoring position and 2 outs is hitting 385 so what does he do he pounds a three-run homer and give the Orioles a 4-2 lead and Morrow ends up given up 1 earned run (4 in total) on 3 hits in the inning which lasted 40 minutes.

So after a quick and easy seventh inning for both pitchers where Mark Reynolds struck out again Morrow comes out for the bottom of the eighth inning and it is now raining harder and he try to keep the Jays in the game down 4-2 so a walk and hit batter sandwiched bunted pop up to Lind in foul ground. This brings Nick Markakis and he hits a deep fly ball to Colby Rasmus who catches it except that he did not call for it or Bautista just did not care because they collide and the runner on second comes around to score on a fly ball out as Rasmus was charged with an error for missing the cut off man so with two outs Adam Jones comes to the plate and he hit a RBI single to make it 6-2 which brings in Orioles closer Kevin Gregg who been solid recently and tonight it took him 4 pitches to sit down Thames-Bautista-Lind and end the game.

So the defense was bad while the conditions were not good and Thames 1 hit in 13 at bats in his first 4 games of August and in his last 3 games in July was 0 for 11 so that means he is 1 for 24 in his last 7 games and does not have any patience.

Tom Mehegan

John Farrell is ejected from the game when he was clearly right in Brett Lawrie's MLB debut

So in his major league debut U got a little bit of everything out of Brett Lawrie and that included a RBI single as apart of his 2 for 4 game which as had his first strikeout but he did look like he was see the ball well standing at the plate. Then there was the defensive struggles as had two balls eating him up and he was charged an error as while start a double play he throw the ball too low for Arron Hill to get the runner at first and then he came out of nowhere to get to a ball and spin and throw to first which would of been close if he had not dragged Adam Lind of the base at first but most others just have to eat the ball. Adam Lind did save Brad mills's bacon to end the second inning as he made a difficult caught and stayed with the ball as he is just getting better and better at first. Then there was Brad Mills who gave up a two-run homer to Adam Jones in the first inning and even though his pitches were higher in the strike zone he only gave up 3 hits going into the sixth where he got the lead off batter looking at strike three and then he lost the strike zone as he walked Valdi on 5 pitches and Mark Reynolds (the second highest K guy in the american league) on 4 pitches and his final batter of the game Matt Wieters had a RBI single that deflected off Lawrie's glove. So Mills went 5.1 charged with 3 runs on 4 hits with 4 walks and 5 Ks and then Luis Perez came in and got both Nolan Reimold and Josh Bell to ground out which made it 4-3 Jays as Escobar had a RBI double in the second with Lawrie's RBI and then in the third Colby Rasmus had a RBI single and Arron Hill had a ground out to make it 4-2. Things got strange in the seventh when with a runner on first Robert Andino bunted Perez picked it up and while he throw it looked very close that Andino shoe made contract with Perez shoe and if it did not Andino was outside of the running lane and should of been automatically out but was called safe which brought John Farrell out to agrue and then he was tossed after lifting Perez for Jesse Litsch. In the top of the eighth inning Arron Hill gave the Jays an insurance with a sac fly and that would come in handy as in the bottom of the ninth Jon Rauch got Josh Bell and pitch hitter Felix Pie in order before given up a single to Andino which was followed by a RBI double hit by Nick Markakis but he finally got Adam Jones to pop out to Arron Hill behind third base to give Brad Mills his first win on the season and Jon Rauch ended up picking up his 11 save of the season.

So Lawrie had his ups and downs and probably more to come

Tom Mehegan

Brett Lawrie is finally joining the Blue Jays in the majors as he heads for Baltimore

So finally Brett Lawrie will make his MLB debut and the Jays organization has to start him on the road and with the zoo environment that will be waiting for him on Tuesday just having a weekend with the team and the beat writers will ease him into the majors that's a good thing. So Lawrie has been tearing up triple A over the last three month with a little bit of a brake when he fractured his left-hand at the end of May that sidelined him for a month but he is still hitting well (.353) while gaining power in his bat (18 homers) and was able to drive in runners on base ( 61 RBIs). While becoming more patient at the plate as he had 53Ks in Las Vegas during his 69 games and walked 28 times and during his first 20 to 30 games his Ks where over a K a game and there were no suck things as walks while he had like 3 or 4 errors over his last 40 games played which is positive.

So now lets take a serious look at the situation because the chance of Lawrie starting tomorrow and then staying up in the majors is little to none as he will have his ups and downs and may not stick immediately with the Jays as the pitchers are going to pitch his differently than in Las Vegas and the 21 year old from Langley, BC may have a learning curve or two before he becomes a full-time major leaguer and the balls will be flying at him at third a little faster. So everybody after the initial excitement dies down we will all need to be very patient with Lawrie and best example of this is the player he is replacing on the roster Travis Snider who is being sent down again to work on stuff and right now for Snider the bigger concern is going to be what goes on in-between his ears as it is as much mental as physical right now so that will be interesting to monitor as it is his second time this season to be sent down.

Also Carlos Villanueva has been shutdown because of basically a dead arm and he will be replaced by Luis Perez who will come in and hopefully get back to the way he was pitching initially when he came up as it looked like he had some struggles after the league saw him once. This means that Perez hopefully figured out how to mix up his pitches a little as a long reliever to keep the opponents off guard and he might be able to do this.

Lawrie has arrived

Tom Mehegan

The Jays had two chances in the extra innings but the Rays took it in the 12

Extra innings were needed and that is where the Jays put themselves in position to win the game and it was very weird events. So it started the tenth inning was theater at its best and it started with J.P. getting ahead of the count 3-0 and the camera just stayed on Rajai Davis with his hamlet in his hand and just stayed on him until finally J.P. took ball four and then the cat and mouse between Rajal Davis and Joel Peralta and Peralta throw over a number of times and Rajai made it back and when he focused Yunel Escobar he throw balls. The final scene of the Rajai show was when he walked back to the base and stumbled over the base and lost contact with the bag and was out number two. Then Yunel Escobar walked and Colby Rasmus hit a ball to the wall and ended up with a RBI double to give him his second two hit game as a Blue Jays but then in the bottom of the tenth it took Jon Rauch two pitches to allow the Rays to tie the game at 4 as his second pitch to Desmond Jennings was a high fast ball and Jennings sent a no-doubter for his third homer of the season and the second of the series as he had the only hit off Ricky Romero on Tuesday night. Then in the eleventh inning with runners on the corners and Jose Molina in his first at bat of the game hit the ball to the wall and Upton waited for the ball to come off the wall and when it happened the ball flow and Molina got a two-run triple which was his third triple of his career which put the Jays to a 6-4 lead. In the bottom of the eleventh the Rays got a Upton double and Casey Kotchman single to open the inning and the runners on the corners and then Matt Joyce grounded out to make it 6-5 and then Shawn Camp came in and with two out Robinson Chirinos had a RBI single off him to tie the game @ 6 but with Evan Longoria up with the bases juiced and he grounded out and he dived for the bag and it was close. In the thirteenth the Jays did not score a run so in the bottom of the inning the Rays got a Upton triple off Camp into the corner and then Camp intentionally walked both Casey Kotchman and Matt Joyce to load the bases with one out to then faced Elliot Johnson who struck out for out two and that brought Robinson Chirinos to the plate and he ended up having a RBI single to win the game 7-6 off Camp.

The Jays started hot as the first four batters reached base as Yunel walked, Colby doubled, and Jose Bastista walked to load the bases and then Adam had a RBI single and that was followed by Encarnacion hit into a double play but Colby scored as well and then Rays starter Wade Davis retired 13 straight batters and he pitched 7.2 innings and his last pitch he throw was slammed by Bautista for his 33rd homer of the season as he gave up 3 runs on 5 hits with 3 walks and 4Ks. Brett Cecil pitched 7 innings and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits with 3 walks and 4Ks and he went crazy in the sixth inning as Justin Ruggiano singled and Desmond Jennings bunt himself on and that lead to Evan Longoria coming to the plate and he was 9 for 19 off Cecil and then Evan Longoria hit a three run homer his 15th of the season and the Rays lead 3-2 after sixth and he just flipped out and destroyed the bench. The other good pitching performance was by Casey Janssen who pitched two innings and retired all six batters he faced and he K'd three of them.

The Jays head to Baltimore after losing to the Rays series

Tom Mehegan

Game 110 - 56 - 54 - Carlos Villanueva shortest start while Litsch pitched well

Carlos Villanueva had his shortest outing as a starter for the Blue Jays and may like Brain Tallet a few seasons back may have hit the mental wall and maybe be taken out of the starting rotation and may be shutdown for a week or so and then be brought back to be a 2 or 3 inning guy out of the bullpen. Tonight Villanueva gave up 8 runs on 9 hits in 2.2 inning pitched and throw 69 pitches and he did K a guy and he did go 1-2-3 in the first and then in the second the Rays had 3 bunts in the inning including RBI bunt single by both Sean Rodriguez and Robinson Chirinos along with a sac fly RBI by Johnny Damon while Ben Zobrist lead off with his 15th homer of the season and the Rays lead 4-0. Then after J.P.'s 18th homer of the season got the Jays on the board but then Rays starter James Shields only gave up a walk to bautista between J.P. leading off the third and two outs in the seventh when an Arron Hill single which made it really tough to get back into the game especially after given up 4 more runs in the bottom of the third and it was lead by Robinson Chirinos first ever major league homer which was a three-run shot and he ended up with his first ever four RBIs in his career. It was 8-1 with 2 outs in the third inning when Jesse Litsch came in to strike out Johnny Damon and it was the start of a string of retiring 10 straight batters to riding the ship and took into the seventh and will most likely replace Villanueva in the starting rotation. The pitching star of the game was Shields who made sure the Blue Jays would not leave Tampa in third in the AL east as he pitched 7.1 inning and gave up a run on 3 hits while walking three and striking out six Blue Jays and Robinson Chirinos had a great game with his first homer and four RBIs in his big league career.

So Brett Cecil maybe able to send the Jays to Baltimore on a winning note

Tom Mehegan

Ricky Romero has an outstanding performance against the Rays

So David Price came into the game with a 8-0 record with an ERA of 1.99 against the Jays in his 9 career games against the Jays and last night Price was turned on his ear as it Ricky Romero who had the one hitter through eight innings as only Desmond Jennings got a hit off him as he hit a homer to lead off the sixth inning. The only reason Ricky Romero did not start the ninth inning is because he walked 4 batters and he even walked the first two batters in the second inning and followed that up by hitting the third batter of the inning but then he struck out Matt Joyce and Kelly Shoppach before getting Sean Rodriguez to ground out to Jose Bastista who flipped the ball to second to get the force out to end the inning.

The game did not have its first hit until the fourth inning when Bautista stepped to the plate and hit his first homer off of Price in his career and his first homer since July 9 and it gave him 32 on the season and gave the Jays a 1-0 lead. In the top of the sixth Yunel Escobar lead off with his 10th homer of the season to give the Jays a 2-0 lead and then with the score 2-1 Rajai Davis had a RBI double to make it 3-1 and Brett Lawrie's like wondering when someone be designated for assignment so he can come up and be a big leaguer and it was looking like with Encarnacion's troubles that it could of not happened soon enough but Encarnacion has smartened up and realized he likes the big league chaque and is now playing like a major league player so it might be a farewell to Mark Teahan that gets Lawrie his chance.

So of course with 17 blown saves by the Blue Jays bullpen that with the two-run lead it would be nail bitten time and it was just that as Jon Rauch came in and got the first two batters to fly out Colby Rasmus in center field but then Casey Kotchman had a looping single over Escobar's head and that was followed up with a single by B.J. Upton and with Kotchman running on contact the winning run was at the plate in Matt Joyce and runners on the corners but then thankfully Joyce flied out to Travis Snider to end the game.

Ricky Romero has pitched 16.1 innings over his last two starts and has only given up a run on 5 hits during those two Jays wins and Ricky is really turning up his focus and its like his he does not give the batter a free pass he will get the batter out one way or another. Edwin Encarnacion had one of the jays 6 hits while Rajai Davis had two of those hits including a RBI double and the Jays are 1/2 game out of first heading into tonight's game.

Go Jays Go (got the PC fixed)

Tom Mehegan